The credibility of the United Nations suffered yet another devastating blow this week after Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, published a deeply controversial and factually contradicted statement that appeared to deny the documented mass rapes committed by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.
“No independent investigation found that rape took place,” she posted on X, directly contradicting multiple forensic investigations, eyewitness reports, and even Hamas fighters’ own confessions. Alsalem, who now identifies as Jordanian, was born in Cairo and has previously dismissed evidence of Hamas missile attacks on Israeli civilians.
But that is not what you did. You took a few individuals applauding the arrival of the defendants in court as indicating that there would not be a fair trial. I do not think you would take a few Gazans applauding rape as indicating that Gaza was incapable of delivering fairness.
— Susan “The Actual Susan” McDonnell 🎗️🇮🇱🇺🇦 (@sleeepysandy) November 14, 2025
This isn’t just a diplomatic misstep. It’s a slap in the face to every Israeli family shattered by the horror of October 7, and a grotesque betrayal of the very office she holds. As Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon rightly declared, “Any UN representative who denies Hamas rape must be removed from their post. Period.”
The facts are no longer in dispute. In March 2024, a special UN mission led by Pramila Patten, the Secretary-General’s own Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, found “substantial evidence” of sexual atrocities carried out by Hamas. Victims were raped, mutilated, murdered. The attacks weren’t random—they were systematic, cruel, and targeted.
Any UN representative who denies Hamas rape must be removed from their post. Period. It is a stain on the UN’s reputation that Reem Alsalem, the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, denies the sexual violence that took place on October 7.
This is a moral… https://t.co/LIpmZtqZqr
— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) November 15, 2025
That same month, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel reported that in most of the documented rape cases, the women were killed immediately afterward. Some were raped post-mortem. Others were dismembered, mutilated, or left naked in public as a grotesque form of humiliation.
In one of the most horrifying accounts, a father and son from Gaza admitted on video to raping and murdering Israeli women on that day. The father’s words are unfiltered horror: “She was screaming, she was crying… I raped her.” His son added, “My father killed the woman after we finished raping her… I killed two people, I raped two people.”
And this is what Reem Alsalem dismisses with bureaucratic deflection?
Not only does her denial insult the memory of the victims and torment the survivors—it sets an unconscionable precedent. If this is the UN’s standard-bearer on violence against women, what hope is there for accountability anywhere?
On October 7th, Hamas didn't just murder, kidnap, and burn civilians. They raped.
This is the chilling confession from a captured Hamas terrorist:
"She was afraid of me and said, 'Help me.' The devil took over me. I laid her down, started undressing her, and did what I did (I… pic.twitter.com/Z7tKwItBf7— Yossi BenYakar (@YossiBenYakar) October 16, 2025
It wasn’t just one report. The New York Times, The Guardian, AP News, and Physicians for Human Rights Israel all reported on widespread sexual violence. The Lieber Institute at West Point cataloged forced nudity, mutilation, and even gunshot wounds to the genitals and breasts of murdered women.
These weren’t isolated incidents. They were atrocities—war crimes—carried out in broad daylight by a terrorist organization that used women’s bodies as weapons of war.
Reem Alsalem is saying that she is being "deliberately misrepresented" after people became angry that she made the claim that "No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7th of October."
If you are wondering if the link she included somehow proves that she… pic.twitter.com/WR9kAz8qFR
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 15, 2025
Reem Alsalem’s comments don’t just discredit her. They further tarnish an international institution already struggling to defend its impartiality. Her refusal to acknowledge confirmed war crimes, even as her own UN colleagues present damning evidence, is not only indefensible—it’s morally bankrupt.
This is not a policy debate. This is about the dignity of the dead, the integrity of justice, and the global fight to protect women from being used as pawns in war.
And it’s time for the United Nations to decide whether it stands with truth—or with the silence of cowards.